Dari Sabang sampai Merauke … from one end of the archipelago to the other …. Indonesia’s women have committed to planting 10 million trees the length and breadth of their nation, all in the space of one month, December 2007.

The nationwide commitment to plant trees and combat global warming is the proud initiative of a range of women’s associations, including the Indonesian Woman’s Alliance for Sustainable Development (IWASD), Kongres Wanita Indonesia (KOWANI) and Solidaritas Istri Kabinet Indonesia Bersatu (SIKIB).

Also joining the national movement is Mrs. Ani Yudhoyono, the wife of the President of the Republic of Indonesia. Mrs. Yudhoyono has registered to host a side event at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali, from December 3-14, where she will encourage Indonesian women to show their support for international efforts to save the planet from climate change by planting and preserving trees in their own gardens or throughout their neighbourhoods.

This ambitious, nationwide program will enable women from all over Indonesia to demonstrate their support for the global fight against climate change and to take genuine, practical action to prevent global warming. As well as helping to address climate change by sequestering carbon emissions, the 10 million trees will also deliver other environmental benefits such as protecting biodiversity and stabilizing erosion.

About 40 of CIFOR and ICRAF’s female staff in the Bogor office will take part in this event, which is in line with the organisation’s ongoing commitment to “walk the talk”, through the popular Greening CIFOR-ICRAF initiative. “It’s great that through this amazing programme CIFOR and ICRAF’s female staff are able to contribute to climate change mitigation,” said Ms. Dina Satrio.

Ms. Satrio is actively involved in the Greening CIFOR-ICRAF Committee, an initiative aimed at reducing CIFOR and ICRAF’s carbon footprint and making the research campus more enviro-friendly.

“It’s easy to look at issues like climate change and think ‘what can I possibly do?’” Ms. Satrio said. “But the only way we’ll ever be able to tackle it is if we all dig in. It may not seem like much to plant a few trees, but it all adds up!”

In recent years CIFOR has significantly increased its research on climate change, now the staff feel it’s time they applied some of that knowledge to CIFOR’s own operations. Accordingly, the center recently surveyed its institutional operations, looking for ways to reduce such things as power usage, wasteful or excessive use of paper and consumables, and unnecessary lighting. One of the big decisions made was to invest funds in carbon-offset schemes in relation to staff plane travel.

Staff have joined in and are increasingly making suggestions on where more energy savings can be made and less waste created.

Based around an action plan of Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Redesign, Refactory, Replace and Recovery, eco-friendly initiatives include Bike 2 Work, paper recycling and reducing energy and water consumption.

As a result, more green procedures and practices are happening both in the office and around the campus. Even the security guards have swapped their motorbikes for push bikes. Inside, printing and photocopying on both sides of the paper are now mandatory.

All of these creative ideas are actually saving CIFOR a few pennies in reduced electricity bills and energy costs. But more importantly, it’s doing the right thing by the planet we live on.

By Widya Prajanthi with assistance from Tim Cronin